WATERLOO - It was defense, defense and more defense for Waterloo East on Friday.

After giving up 67 or more points in three consecutive losses before the Christmas break, the Trojans spent a lot of time on the defensive end of the floor during holiday break practices.

Two games into the new year, those practices seem to have paid off. East opened with a 53-49 win over Waterloo West Tuesday. Friday night, the Trojans upped their efforts on the defensive side, holding Cedar Rapids Prairie to 24.5 percent shooting en route to a 72-39 win.

"We didn't practice much offense," East center Isaiah Wade said. "We worked on defense a lot.

"We were just trying to hustle and keep them from scoring. You can have a bad offensive game, but you should never have a bad defensive game."

The Trojans (4-5) set the tone early. Prairie took a 3-0 lead, but that was the last shot the Hawks made until just 1 minute, 41 seconds remained in the first quarter.

Prairie (4-5) made just 3 of 17 shots in the opening eight minutes. East was 17 of 27 in the first half from the field with six 3-pointers, while the Hawks were just 5 of 23.

"I thought it all started with our defense," Trojans head coach Steve McGraw said. "I thought we played well defensively and I thought we rebounded well for the most part. Obviously, there is a correlation between playing good defense and maybe shooting the ball pretty good. We shot it pretty well tonight, I think."

Nine East players scored in the first half and 11 total. Wade led all scorers with 15 points, while Avree Clark chipped in 11.

The Trojans put the game away with an 18-4 run in the second quarter that saw the score go from 20-10 to 38-14.

"I was a little unhappy about how we came out in the second half," McGraw said. "You've got to understand we are not used to being in that situation. So they were a little bit ... I don't know if they were surprised they could do something like that or not."

While the Trojans' offense didn't click as well in the second half, the defense kept it up as East lead by as many as 29 points.

Ethan Copeland and Mason Hook led Prairie with seven points apiece.

PRAIRIE (39): Cal Clark 0-6 3-4 3, Max Smith-Drahos 1-7 2-3 2, Jalen Rima 1-7 1-2 3, Ethan Copeland 2-4 1-2 7, Jake Eilers 2-7 0-0 5, Ryan Oxley 2-5 1-2 5, Mason Hook 2-5 2-3 7, Darren Kilpatrick 0-1 0-0 0, Logan Serbousek 0-1 0-0 0, Zack Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Mac Nierling 1-1 0-0 3, Matt Lorenz 1-3 0-0 2, Blake Krapfl 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 12-49 10-16 39.

WATERLOO EAST (72): Avree Clark 4-9 0-2 11, Jacee Clark 2-4 0-0 4, Martekas Matlock 2-3 0-0 6, Isaiah Wade 7-10 1-2 15, Marquas Gafeney 1-4 0-0 3, Al Campbell 1-2 0-0 2, Raheem Nickelson 2-2 3-4 7, Carlton Todd 4-7 0-2 9, Jordan Garrey 1-2 0-0 3, Tyre Reed 2-2 0-1 6, Kenaan Stalling 0-0 0-0 0, Dallas Jones 0-1 0-0 0, Brady Berinobis 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-49 4-11 72.

Halftime - Waterloo East 40, Prairie 16. 3-point goals - Prairie 5 (Copeland 2, Eilers, Hook, Nierling), East 10 (A. Clark 3, Matlock 2, Gafeney, Todd, Garrey, Reed 2). Technical foul - Prairie bench.